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Despair by Vladimir Nabokov: the Transcendental Nature of the Narrative and Power of a Symbolic Language Nina Scherbak, St

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Despair by Vladimir Nabokov: the Transcendental Nature of the Narrative and Power of a Symbolic Language Nina Scherbak, St Despair by Vladimir Nabokov: the Transcendental Nature of the Narrative and Power of a Symbolic Language Nina Scherbak, St. Petersburg State University Abstract The article aims at providing critical analysis of reviews related to the study of the novel Despair by V. Nabokov. It is stated in this article that the idea of “the murder of the double” doesn’t correlate with concrete action, psychological perversion, or the irony of the writer towards Dostoevsky. “The murder of a double” is in reality a metaphor for a complex and non-linear process of the creation of literary work. The encounter with a double could be considered a manifestation of an event related to mystical experience. The encounter of Hermann and Felix (and a further elimination of this encounter) correlates with an attempt to actualize in the text the extraordinary Different allusions, aesthetics and means allow to generate numerous extra meanings in the text which are related to the historical and cultural context of the time. An important research result is the study of a symbolic language developed by Nabokov which is manifested by lexical density, use of numerous homogeneous and heterogeneous attributes, multilingualism, precise attention to the sounds, eco-elements, and mirror- like elements, etc. This language is the basis of Nabokov’s art almost in a Heideggerian way, allowing the reader to generate a number of meanings, simultaneously being absorbed, in the process of reading and interpretation. Keywords: Nabokov, symbolic language, anti-narrative practices, irony, free reported speech, artistic value 1. Introduction: the plot and the research aims Despair (in Russian “Otchayaniye”) is a novel by V. Nabokov that was first published in Russian in 1934 (the English version Despair appeared much later, in 1936). It is a 1st person narrative. The plot of the novel, as often happens with Nabokov’s prose, is strange, yet quite ordinary for the detective genre. The main character, Hermann, a Berlin entrepreneur, meets in the woods, quite by chance, a tramp called Felix, who he immediately considers to be his double. The affairs of the main character don’t go well and he decides to use the similarity with Felix in a criminal way. Hermann kills Felix, believing that Felix’s death will be taken by the authorities as his own death, and this could be used to his, Herman’s, benefit. Suddenly, it turns out that Herman and Felix have very little in common1. The aim of the article (based on research carried out with the use of biographical, semantic and structural analysis) is above all, a) to show the ability of Nabokov to create a feeling of mystical experience in the reader by means of introducing the Otherworld (mystical, trance-like border world), b) to analyze how the rigid structure of the novel corresponds to the general meanings generated by it. It is also important c) to view the structure of the novel related to the use of a symbolic language that the writer is composing. This language (characterized as free-reported speech, being lexically and syntactically dense) allows the reader to generate different meanings that work simultaneously. The reader gets fully absorbed by the text experiencing its powerful effect. The murder in the novel is related, as will be argued, less to the psychoanalytical domain, yet allows the reader to trace the process of human interaction as such, artistic creation, as well as specifying limitations of the 14 language, its inability to express certain meanings. It is also important to mention that the critique analyzed in the article at the beginning will be related to Nabokov’s contemporaries, and later we shall refer to some of the contemporary English-speaking and Russian critics. 2. Literary criticism of Despair by Nabokov’s contemporaries and some contemporary critics It is important to mention that most of Nabokov’s contemporaries criticized the novel, or interpreted it in a weird, or unusual way. The main interpretation of the novel was given by critics, the contemporaries of Nabokov, such as V. Veydle, Vl. Hodasevitch, G. Adamovitch, P. Bitzilli, and Jean Paul Sartre. О. Dyubankova points out that “even such delicate critics and writers of the Russian émigré world like Adamovitch, Georgy Ivanov, and Hodasevitch, didn’t accept Nabokov’s literary works, didn’t acknowledge him” (Dyubankova 2008: 36) (translated by N.S.). And even “Hodasevitch is among his literary enemies from Montparnasse, a shrewd critic Adamovitch, as well as Ivanov, the creator of libel” (ibid.) (translated by N.S.) Very strong criticism of Nabokov was expressed by Amfiteatrov, in his letter to Mark Aldanov (18 February 1936). In this letter he states that he has read Despair by Sirin: I didn’t like it. Too pretentious, and is not convincing. His talent is evident, without any doubt, but the invalid has twisted too much, difficult to get back into the straight position. (Melnikov 2013: 38) (translated by N.S.) From different positive reviews in which Nabokov’s complexity and non-linear perspectives are manifested, one could mention the article written by V. Veydle “Sirin. Despair”. In his review V. Veydle points out the positive characteristics of the novel by Nabokov, as well as the evident and precious traits that characterize Nabokov’s prose. For instance, he mentions that “the topic of Sirin’s literary works is the artistic act”, the main characters of his novels (Despair, Luzhin’s Defense, Invitation to the Beheading) are “diverse and similar symbols of the creator, the painter, the poet” (Veydle 1936: 185-187). “Sirin’s attention is not focused on the world around him, but on his own ego, which is doomed, as its artistic destiny dictates it, to reflect images, visions and apparitions of this world” (ibid.). “The unconscious or conscious sufferings of this ego, its powerless domineering role, its undesired power over things and people, (which in reality are neither things nor people, but the results of one’s powerful creation), the vision of which he can’t escape from), all of these factors (despite the differences) constitute the main subject matter in all his short stories and novels” (Veydle 1936: 187). The full commentary continues: The visions of adolescence and the opposed soulless tumult of the city one could encounter in Luzhin’s Defense and in Despair, but here, in Despair, they are connected with some sort of spiritual experience, which gives Sirin’s literary work its own, almost sacred and private experience. (Veydle 1936: 185-187) (translated by N.S) A positive assessment of the novel is also given by V. Hodasevitch who believes that Despair is a literary work that has a high level of meaningful significance as its content is the 15 description of the artistic act in any of its manifestations. The murder is a metaphor for literary work. That is what the critic writes about the main character Hermann, who is working on his idea of murder in the same fashion as “the painter is working on his creations”: “Hermann is an author and an artist”, “he is genuine and extremely critical to himself”, “and he dies from a unique mistake that he makes in the process of his creation, the work that takes all his effort”. “In the process of literary creation he allowed the audience, to understand and assess his creation”, “and was proud to suffer from the lack of acknowledgement”. “Despair arises as he is guilty of his mistakes himself, as he is just a talent, not a genius”. “Sirin called his character Hermann, but he could have called him more openly and sincerely - Salieri, instead” (Hodasevitch 1937: 120) (translated by N.S.). What is meant here is that Hermann is the character like Salieri feeling envious of Mozart’s (Felix’s) talent. A famous interpretation given by Bitzilli in his articles “Renaissance of Allegory” is memorable and interesting. He compares Nabokov’s novel with literary works by Saltikov Shedrin: What if Hermann is Iudushka? Iudushka is a moral idiot in the direct sense of the word (“idiot” is a man who exists without anyone, without the milieu around him, in empty space, he is not a human being). For such a human being – not a human being – there is no difference between real people and the fruit of his imagination. Everyone and he himself are in the same place, where rules of logic just don’t exist. (Bitzilli 2000: 213) In his review of the French translation of Despair by Nabokov, J. P. Sartre, a famous philosopher writes a far stricter and illogical, as well as rude commentary about Despair. First he describes the plot of the novel in detail: This author has plenty of talent, but he is the child of old parents — by which I intend to refer only to his spiritual parents, and specifically to Dostoevski: the hero of this strange miscarriage of a novel bears a less close resemblance to his double Felix than to the characters of ‘A Raw Youth’, ‘The Eternal Husband’, and ‘Notes from Underground’ [...] The difference is that, whereas Dostoevski believes in his characters, Mr Nabokov no longer believes in his, or for that matter in romantic art. (Sartre in Page 1982: 65) One should not trust cruel critique or, the other way round, far-fetched interpretations (which very often have little ground) of Nabokov’s prose. The freedom of interpretation is often determined by specific interests of researchers themselves, their experience and professional interests, regardless of the historical period. G. Adamovitch writes that Despair is the best novel by Nabokov in which the “scheme of the storyline is appropriate and correct yet it exists separately from Hermann’s wonders, both existing in isolation” (Adamovitch 1931: 2) (translated by N.S.).
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